LEARNING DAILY

 

Malachi 3:6a, For I am the Lord, I do not change;

 

I have a great brother in the Lord who told me this was the only Italian prophet in the Old Testament. After careful consideration, I think he was pulling my leg. What do you think?

 

When going through some old notes and papers I have kept, I found some notes about the verse from Malachi. Again, I did not put down the source from which I wrote the notes I am about to share and expand on. The heading from the notes is, “Things to learn from Malachi because God does not change”.

 

Billy Graham has written, “Just because people misinterpret God’s word does not mean it has changed. The devil is a master at making us question God. He has been doing it from the beginning of time. Satan raises the questions: ‘Did God really say…?’ It’s the first question in the Bible, and its significant that it comes from the mouth of the one whose primary goal is to turn us away from God.” Satan misquoted God. I think each of us need to have a greater hunger and thirst for God’s Word, His kingdom, and His righteousness every day so we are never misled by the enemy!

 

It is important to understand the context of this verse. In the time Malachi was writing, Israel had moved away from God to be involved in wrong sacrifices, divorce, and pagan ways of living. Malachi is pointing out that Israel’s survival was not based on anything they could do or their own merit; their survival was based on God never changing. Because He never changes, His promises are secure. Israel’s survival was based solely on God’s faithfulness.

 

Jeremiah 29:11-12 is often referred to as it tells us that God has plans for us. Those plans are “of peace and not evil”, they are to give us a “future and a hope”, and the promise to restore us, His people, when we mess up. Those plans require us to participate. Listen to the words God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah. “When you call upon Me and go and pray to Me”, then God listens. “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” God is going to do everything His Word says He will do; He has not changed since giving these words through the prophet.

 

God’s plans for each of us might need to be adjusted from time to time because of our humanity. I can only speak for myself. I have tried to make God’s plan for me better by adding to or subtracting to whatever He has planned. His plans did not change. He needed to get me back on track to walk with Him instead of the path I had thought would help. I am still learning that God expects us to be obedient to Him. He tells us three times in John 14 and 15 that if we love Him, keep His commandments. Our obedience to Him comes from our love which is very different than obedience performed out of obligation. Our obedience comes from walking closely with Him, staying in His word, and developing a prayer life dependent on bringing glory and honor to His name.

 

One other note I have written down regarding this is – God keeps good records. Read and consider Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown to His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” “Because of the work of Christ on the cross, God forgets every sin (Hebrews 8:12, Psalm 103:12), but He never forgets any act of love expressed toward Him and others” (DJSB).

 

God does not change. He does not change His mind about His love for His faithful followers who have declared their faith in His Son and who do all they can to walk on the narrow way with Him. “For I am the Lord, I do not change!”

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.